Kentucky Theatre Association
Board of Directors Meeting
Sunday June 4, 2017
Lexington Children’s Theatre
2:00-4:00pm
Wayne Kirsch, Jeremy Kisling, Kim Miller, Zach Ross, Alicia Henning, Dawn Connerly, Brad Downall, and Phil Neace
Sarah Diamond Burroway and Shelby Steege (on the phone)
Agenda
2:00pm Welcome
2:10pm Conference call starts
Additions to Agenda
Approval of Minutes
- Jeremy moved to approve, zach 2nd
- All Approved with the change to SETC acronym in the minutes
Treasurer’s Report
- We are where we were at from the beginning of the year (nothing changed with MG festival)
2017 Proposed Budget
- Change- we have agreed to support for SETC to $500 per school
- Suggested we change the amount based on the distance the festival is each year (more further away, less closer to home)
- Could be an issue from year to year change since some schools would get
- Suggested that we link the amount to milage
- Possibly a flat fee plus an amount per mile
- Suggested that for THIS year we hold to the increased rate and see how that works for this year
- Suggested that we explore funds from other sources to assist schools (some states get grants from the state to help not just the state Theater Association)
- Membership Seems low
- We should be striving for that to increase
- What should it be- closer to $2,000
- All the board members, schools, community theaters pay for registration (should be about $1,500)
- Usually the audition registration is lower
- Closer to $8,000
- Suggested that maybe we could keep it up if we offered trying to organize some form of transportation that the auditionees pay for.
- Would be a lot to organize for this year
- We had a lot of “out of state” auditionees due to our date being later in the season
- We lower the audition to $8,000 and increase the membership to $2000 we would be $1,000 off
- Suggested we plan for more Middle School entries
- Suggested that we do a per performer fee for Community Theater (more like SETC)
- Suggested we do a performance fee and then an additional fee (like $15 per performer)
- Would the performers expect something more for this (like a t-shirt, ect)
- We will table this for now
- Concerns about expenditures
- There is currently nothing in the SETC rep line
- Usually $850 to offset the cost for the Fall and Spring meetings
- The High School Festival registration is also a little low
- Possibly closer to $2,800
- Will Jeremy be conference coordinator again this year?
- Someone should possibly train with Jeremy (co-coordinator?)
- We need someone at the registration table
- Suggested
- College student
- Board members sign up
- Pay someone (give them a flat fee?) / intern
- Add: $500 to budget for hotel/ small stipend
- There would be some travel cost for Conference coordinator
- Much of it can be done by phone
- Maybe Brad and Jeremy does it this year and create a manual
- Are we okay with having a budget that is not balanced (at least on paper)
- We do have money in reserve
- If we approve the budget with changes it is $2,775 off
- Motion made and approved to approve budget with the understanding that we will have to dip into our cash reserves for this year to offset the budget.
- Jeremy moves for approval and Alicia seconded
- Membership building
- Do we give them anything for their membership
- Letter? Pin? Pen?
- Do we remind them about renewal
Committee Reports/Discussions
Middle School Festival- Sarah Diamond Burroway
- Best festival EVER!
- 5 entries
- A 6th that dropped out due to having a cast of MS/ HS
- PD was very popular (for teachers and students)
- Thanks Jeremy and Phil for their assistance
- How can we help to make connections from the Middle Grades festival to High School festival
- Will need support from board members for PD opportunities
- Zach- What can we add to the website (we have an outdated info)
- Sarah and Zach discuss info to add to the website
- Registration info and basic festival info
- Venue?
- Looking at keeping it in Central Kentucky
- Possibly back to Spencer County for 5th season
High School Regionals Locations/Dates- Brad Downall
- All 5 sites and dates confirmed
- Western- Sept 30th- Owensboro High School
- East- Oct 7th- Corbin High School
- Northwestern- Hardin County Schools PAC- Oct 14
- Northern- Scott HS- Oct 14
- Central- Frederick Douglas HS- Oct 28th
- Dawn Connerly coordinator
Adjudication Sheet Discussion- Jeremy Kisling
- Jeremy came up with a draft that was based on Virginia model
- Creating a system that would allow us to possibly send on alternatives to State but it needed to be a scored not just feedback
- We need to create a rubric to show what a “four” looks like… a “three” etc
- Would like to High School teacher reps and not teachers to create rubrics
- Is it similar to SETC? Is the technical at this level for SETC?
- Kentucky schools consistently don’t perform at the same technical level as other schools.
- Will this be used at state as well as regionals
- Does not have to be used at State
- Was designed to create a numerical system for regionals
- Left as a work in progress to check with how it aligns with SETC AND create rubrics
- Phil, Alischa, Jeremy, and Brad will work
- Sarah suggested to see how it could be used for Middle Grades
Community Theatre- Brad shared for Lisa
- Community Theatre and their relationship with SETC
- Read SETC letter
- SETC created a fee just for CT (less than what HS pays)
- At State level there is not a lot of participation and CT do not have a lot of money to pay for this
- Should CT members pay full dues and fully be a part of the conference
- Should CT become a separate conference
- Sarah suggested it be separate because the way the time is set up for CT shows it does not allow for them to participate in the full conference
- If CT splits off what would stop the High School not to want to split off
- HS has similar issues with not being able to fully participate in the conference
- Simual issues happened in Indiana and they split off. It was best for the Community Theaters
- Jeremy needs feedback before Fall meeting Sept 9-11th
Website- Zac Ross
- Are we doing a good enough job sharing with people across the state what KTA does?
- Does our Website give enough information about what we do?
- Zach had a new teacher look at the website and she had a lot of questions.
- Give a bigger overview of what each section of the website to give a “new to KTA” view of what we do and what KTA is all about
- This would help with membership
- About Us page
- What does our mission mean more specifically?
- What do we do more than just festival
- Membership
- What do people get as members?
- Possible ideas
- An event calendar where members can promote their events
- Discussion board
- Audition and work opportunity boards
- Teacher- resource sharing (shows and lessons)
- Membership spotlight
- A members section
- How would we do log in?
- Possibly adding memberpress that allows this pretty easily and is inexpensive $99/ year
- Simple to use/ it is user generated
- Might need for all membership to be done online
- Would need to make sure that there is a way for paying through purchase order for Schools
- Do we need to monitor the Facebook page differently if we offer this? Something to discuss in the future.
Roots of the Bluegrass
- Entry form is ready to be sent out
- Updated a new e-mail address
- We have a registered e-mail for KTA that email will just forward to who ever is connected to the e-mail
- Added a paragraph that says that they need to agree to KTA cutting their play for performance at the RotB performance
- Kathi said that she is a tentative yes to assist with the cuttings again this year if she can.
- Hoping to get it out tomorrow 6/5/17
SETC- Jeremy Kisling
- States have discussed with SETC about getting liability insurance for all state groups to save money
- States may be asked to kick in money to create an app for festival
- Let Jeremy know if there is anything you want taken to the Fall meeting
KCAE
State Conference- Brad Downall
- Kim said all sites have been reserved
- Can Kim put together a list of hotels and food/ restaurants for our members
New Business
- Board member pledge/ outline commitment for board members
- Aug 27th 2-4pm meeting will be onsite meeting for final conference plans
- End of Sept.- conference call to finalize regional
4:00pm Adjourn
- Kim Miller Moved to Adjourn and Wayne Seconded
